Family members of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 passengers and crew heard the news they feared most Monday: "All lives are lost."

For many, who have waited and hoped for more than two weeks for signs of life from their loved ones, the grief was too much to bear.

"They have told us all lives are lost," a relative told a CNN producer at Beijing's Lido Hotel, where family members were called to meet with airline representatives.

Just before the relatives were briefed in a conference room, four emergency medical workers entered, dressed in bright orange uniforms. A bed on wheels also was pushed inside.

After some time, family members emerged, sobbing loudly. A few pushed and shoved one another. Some people were wheeled out on the bed. One group smashed a photojournalist's camera lens.

The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 48 photos

The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 37048 photos

Relatives of passengers from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 console each other outside the Malaysia Airlines office in Subang, Malaysia, on Thursday, February 12. Protesters demanded that the airline withdraw the statement made in January that all the passengers aboard the plane are dead. The plane, which disappeared on March 8, has not been found.

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The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 37048 photos

A policewoman watches a couple whose son was on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 cry outside the airline's office building in Beijing after officials refused to meet with them on June 11, 2014. The search for the missing plane has been ongoing since early 2014.

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Members of the media scramble to speak with Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 27. Data from communications between satellites and missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was released the day before, more than two months after relatives of passengers say they requested that it be made public.

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Operators aboard the Australian ship Ocean Shield move Bluefin-21, the U.S. Navy's autonomous underwater vehicle, into position to search for the jet on April 14.

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A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks out of a window while searching for debris off the coast of western Australia on April 13.

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The Echo moves through the waters of the southern Indian Ocean on April 12.

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A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the search, flies past the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 9.

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A relative of a missing passenger cries at a vigil in Beijing on April 8.

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Australian Defense Force divers scan the water for debris April 7, in the southern Indian Ocean.

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A towed pinger locator is readied to be deployed April 7 off the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield.

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A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks at a flare in the Indian Ocean during search operations on April 4.

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A member of the Japanese coast guard points to a flight position data screen while searching for debris from the missing jet on April 1.

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A woman prepares for an event in honor of those aboard Flight 370 on March 30, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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A Royal New Zealand Air Force member launches a GPS marker buoy over the southern Indian Ocean on March 29.

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The sole representative for the families of Flight 370 passengers leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on March 28, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions.

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A member of the Royal Australian Air Force is silhouetted against the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the missing jet on March 27.

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Flight Lt. Jayson Nichols looks at a map aboard a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft during a search on March 27.

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People in Kuala Lumpur light candles during a ceremony held for the missing flight's passengers on March 27.

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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, delivers a statement about the flight on March 24 in Kuala Lumpur. Razak's announcement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH 370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived."

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Grieving relatives of missing passengers leave a hotel in Beijing on March 24.

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Ground crew members wave to a Japanese Maritime Defense Force patrol plane as it leaves the Royal Malaysian Air Force base in Subang, Malaysia, on March 23. The plane was heading to Australia to join a search-and-rescue operation.

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A passenger views a weather map in the departures terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 22.

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A Chinese satellite captured this image, released on March 22, of a floating object in the Indian Ocean, according to China's State Administration of Science. It is a possible lead in the search for the missing plane. Surveillance planes are looking for two objects spotted by satellite imagery in remote, treacherous waters more than 1,400 miles from the west coast of Australia.

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Satellite imagery provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on March 20, shows debris in the southern Indian Ocean that could be from Flight 370. The announcement by Australian officials that they had spotted something raised hopes of a breakthrough in the frustrating search.

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Another satellite shot provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows possible debris from the flight.

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A distraught relative of a missing passenger breaks down while talking to reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 19.

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A relative of a missing passenger tells reporters on March 18 in Beijing about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet.

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U.S. Navy crew members assist in search-and-rescue operations March 16, in the Indian Ocean.

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Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on March 13. The search area for Flight 370 has grown wider. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, efforts are expanding west into the Indian Ocean.

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A Vietnamese military official looks out an aircraft window during search operations March 13.

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Malaysian air force members look for debris on March 13 near Kuala Lumpur.

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Relatives of missing passengers wait for the latest news at a hotel in Beijing on March 12.

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Indonesian air force officers in Medan, Indonesia, examine a map of the Strait of Malacca on March 12.

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A member of the Vietnamese air force checks a map while searching for the missing plane on March 11.

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Vietnam air force Col. Le Huu Hanh is reflected on the navigation control panel of a plane that is part of the search operation over the South China Sea on March 10.

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A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported March 8. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10.

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A U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter lands aboard the USS Pinckney to change crews before returning to search for the missing plane March 9, in the Gulf of Thailand.

Italian tourist Luigi Maraldi, who reported his passport stolen in August, shows his current passport during a news conference at a police station in Phuket island, Thailand, on March 9. Iranians Pouri Nourmohammadi and Delavar Seyed Mohammad Reza were identified by Interpol as the two men who used stolen passports to board the flight. But there's no evidence to suggest either was connected to any terrorist organizations, according to Malaysian investigators. Malaysian police believe Nourmohammadi was trying to emigrate to Germany using the stolen Austrian passport.

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Vietnamese air force crew stand in front of a plane at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City on March 9 before heading out to the area between Vietnam and Malaysia where the airliner vanished.

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Buddhist monks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport offer a special prayer for the missing passengers on March 9.

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The Chinese navy warship Jinggangshan prepares to leave Zhanjiang Port early on March 9 to assist in search-and-rescue operations for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight. The Jinggangshan, an amphibious landing ship, is loaded with lifesaving equipment, underwater detection devices and supplies of oil, water and food.

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Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9. The vessel is carrying 12 divers and will rendezvous with another rescue vessel on its way to the area where contact was lost with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

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The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya in the South China Sea on March 9.

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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8.

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A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8.

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Chinese police at the Beijing airport stand beside the arrival board showing delayed Flight 370 in red on March 8.

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Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Juahari Yahya, front, speaks during a news conference on March 8 at a hotel in Sepang. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts" with the jet, he said.

Promising artist among those lost on MH370

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A relative rushed out of the room, screaming, "You announce this information today. ... Is it really confirmed? What's your proof? We've been waiting for 17 days. You simply tell us this! Where is the proof? It's wrong to announce the information like this!"

A Chinese grandmother staggered out of the conference room, screaming, "The Communist Party has to help me! My son, my daughter-in-law and granddaughter were all on board! All three family members are gone. I am desperate!"

She sobbed and fell to her knees.

Malaysia Airlines told CNN it sent a text message to family members before briefing those in person in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur and speaking to others by phone.

It texted this to relatives of passengers: "Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond a reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived. As you will hear in the next hour from Malaysia's Prime Minister, we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean."

At a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters that Flight 370 went down somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, far from any possible landing site.

The airline is working on an arrangement to fly families to Australia once wreckage is found.

'Anguished relatives'

CNN's Sara Sidner, who has been in Kuala Lumpur over the past few days, has spent time with family members.

"These families have been through absolute hell," she reported on air shortly before the Prime Minister's news conference began.

Family members have tended to move in groups, Sidner said, clinging to one another for support. Counselors are with them. Upon hearing the latest news, Sidner said, some relatives said they felt they had answers.

But since their nightmare began, many family members have "felt they'd been left out," she said.

Since they learned the plane was missing, they have wept and begged authorities for answers, and some have appeared enraged by the seeming lack of progress.

"We're all human, and we all hurt. We all struggle through things. So I'm not the first one to go through something like this, and I'm certainly not going to be the last one," the brother of American passenger Philip Wood told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."

"I don't like being trite when I say my faith is getting me through this. It sounds kind of cliche to say it. It's a hope that we have that this is not the end of all things," James Wood said.

Philip Wood's girlfriend has been writing her boyfriend on her personal Facebook page, notes that are tender and anguished.

Sarah Bajc has written to Wood that she misses him and wishes he would hurry up and come back to her. A Facebook page called Finding Philip Wood has become a repository for kind notes to Bajc and messages from others who have followed the flight mystery.

After the news conference Monday, a message was posted on the site, though it's unclear who composed it: "Our collective hearts are hurting now. Please lift all the loved ones of MH370 with your good thoughts and prayers. Thank you for your continued support and for being our inspiration."

Bajc wrote in an e-mail to reporters after Monday's development that she still has no closure because there's still "no confirmed wreckage."

She wrote: "I need closure to be certain but cannot keep on with the public efforts against all odds. I STILL feel his presence, so perhaps it was his soul all along. ... It looks like the first phase of our mission has ended. Now Philip's family and I will need some time for private grief."

Bimal Sharma's sister was also aboard the flight, and like Bajc, he stressed that no debris has been found.

He told CNN's "The Lead With Jake Tapper" that he wants to "see something from the seas."

"Only thing I hope -- they don't give up the search," he said. "There are too many unanswered questions from this flight: Why was it diverted? Why did it fly low?"

Criticism of investigation

Hours after Razak's news conference Monday, a committee representing some of families of the 154 Chinese and Taiwanese passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 criticized the Malaysian government in a statement, accusing authorities of deliberate search delays and cover-ups, China's state-run CCTV reported.

"If our 154 relatives aboard lost their lives due to such reasons, then Malaysia Airlines, the Malaysian government and the Malaysian military are the real murderers that killed them," the statement said.

Many have been critical of Malaysian authorities and Malaysia Airlines regarding the investigation.

The airline has defended its actions, explaining that it takes time to verify satellite signals and analyze those signals' significance before releasing information.

Last week, three women who are relatives of the passengers staged a protest at the Kuala Lumpur hotel where the media were staying. Their efforts were cut short by security guards who removed them through a crush of reporters, dragging one as she screamed.

One woman cried: "My son ... I just want my son back."

She and the other family members said they weren't satisfied with "the Malaysian government's inaction."

"What we need is to know the truth, to know where the plane is," she shouted. "We have had enough. Malaysian government are liars."

Another woman shouted, "I don't care what your government does. I just want my son back!"